no cycling, but as hard as 100km

This night I was able to sleep but because of the altitude I had a little bit headache. During the night I dreamed that I wouldn’t have a headache.

Somewhere around 6, the french couple, Tomaz and I got up to see the sunrise. It was nice and the reward for going up at that altitude. I was impressed by the glacier, or more what is left of it. There is just a big hole left and one can see the glacier somewhere up the mountains. We were even able to hear some avalanches and saw one going down, but far away and little, so we were safe.

After a breakfast and the shock, that they added charges for the heater underneath the table during dinner (it is normal that you have a heater there), we packed our stuff and went back. As the Annapurna Base Camp Trek is a one way up a valley, the only way to exit it, is the one you came up.

Already in the evening before I had the idea to juggle 3 objects at 4130 meters of altitude. I did it before we left and Tomaz filmed it.  As soon as the video is uploaded, I will upload it here😀 I was finaly able to insert it:

Use this link to see the video.

As we didn’t know how fit we were we hadn’t decided on a destination. After some  minutes going down the headache went away 😀 Going down is really boring for me. I was always afraid that my knee would hurt a lot as it did a lot while walking in the past, but not on the whole trip from Delhi to here. But it didn’t hurt at all,  only my muscles in the legs hurt but not that I had to stop.

On the way down,  Tomaz always asked fir the price of a Snickers, to see how it evolves. He kept talking about that one place at the bottom were it only costs 110Rp (0,95 €).  Up at ABC it costs 220Rp (1,91 €).

At 15:30 we reached a lodge, where we said,  we would be happy to stay because if the distance, but we thought it was still to early to stop,  so we continued to the next village. Arrived there we checked what the lodge offered. They only offered a bucket as shower. As we knew that another lodge was 500 meters away,  we decided to check that one out. The same. We knew that down here it would have lodges with shower,  so we continued and continued and continued. The sun went down,  it started to get dark and we still hadn’t got a lodge, but there is only one way to go and we knew it as we went it the other way around 2 days ago. We hadn’t imagined to cone down that far today, as it is halfway from Nayapur,  where we left the bus and started hiking some days ago, to ABC (39 km). 

Finally we arrived at a good lodge with hot shower😀 We entered and as the man saw us,  he grabbed directly a room key and showed us our room without us even saying anything. After a game of SchnikSchnackSchnuk,  Tomaz was the first one to take a shower.

After a hot shower and dinner we saw that they had pudding on the menu, which we had to order,  as on the way I sometimes said to people who went up: “There will be pudding at the end”. When Tomaz was around, he then added “But there is no spoon” 😂

So we arrived after a long walk in Chhomrong  at an altitude of 2160m which means we descended 1970 meters over 20 km. We went even more down to cross a bridge before the village and climbed again to get to the lodge.

As we passed the trekkers checkpoint when it was closed, we need to go back tomorrow for 50 to 100 meters, to check out of that area we were in, to keep everything correct.

Now that I am lying in bed my knee stars to hurt… I hope it will be good again tomorrow.

My quote of today, beneath “there will be pudding at the end”:” I chose to can do it” (to can continue walking when it was dark and late).

As wifi costs here and I don’t have mobile internet in the lodge, this post will be posted at a later time.

no cycling

I couldn’t sleep at night I don’t know why perhaps of the altitude or the noise of the river in front of the lodge. Or simply sleepless which I have sometime. I felt fine in the morning😀

We were the first one to have breakfast but we were not the first one on the trek. The indian people left before us. I didn’t think that they would  arrive there but they did one or two hours after the sunset yesterday evening. At 7:30 Tomaz and I were on the trek. Soon we overtook the indians again. It was really cold in the beginning,  as there was no sun in the valley. After 2 hours we mad a break to drink a milk-tea, when the sun came out😀 At that moment the german woman and the french couple  from yesterday evening, arrived and joined us. From that restaurant out,  one could  see a buddha figure in the rocks. Picture will follow.

After the break Tomaz and I split up a little bit on the way to Machhapuchhare Base Camp. We met there again. Arrived there we were having 3 plats of dalbat,  really good rice with vegetables and dal, some kind of soup which you mix all together and it is kind of all you can eat. It is the only dish they serve like that. The last days, we always ate 2 plates,  this time we wanted a small third one and he gave us a full one😂 We were really full of rice.

As we were climbing, we went over 3000 meters so I could get altitude sick. I always tried to not move to fast and breath deeply. I just got small headaches☺️ so not very much altitude sick.

Our big destination of today was the Annapurna Base Camp (ABC). From there comes the title of todays post, think about it, eventually you will get it😂 So we went there, another 400 meters of altitude and 3 km of distance only, but it took us like 2 hours, because we are approaching the 4000 meter mark of altitude and the air got sticker and sticker.

When we arrived Tomaz and I took a lot of pictures in front of the sign of the base camp  and up on the hill with the praying flags (I think they are called like that in english). We met the french couple again and decided to share a room together.

Our lodge is very crowded,perhaps because everybody wants to stay the night here.

Tomorrow will be better again.

So ABC is at 4130m altitude and we needed 8 hour (lunch included) to do 11 km.

Hopefully I can sleep well tonight,  not as last night.

Even today the wifi doesn’t even work up here, so this post will be uploaded to a later date.

no cycling

After getting up late at 7:30 and waited very long on our breakfast, we were perhaps the last one to leave the lodge😂 But we are fast,  as at 12 o’clock we passed some people who started at 6:30 at tha same lodge and they haven’t even arrived here where we are now. Everybody should take their time. I would stop too,  in case I would get any symptom of altitude sickness like headache. But I feel fine.

To explain the title of todays post. Next to normal shoes I saw some carriers (the local people carrying stuff up and down as there are no roads for cars and trucks) and locals wearing these types of shoes and I was amazed about that.

One of the carriers even fell over with a gas can on his back,  he was still laughing but I think it was empty😂

Today we trekked 11 km in 6 hours and we got up to 2500 meters into the little village called Dovan. Amazingly they have warm showers here and it is great😀

Tomorrow we will try to get up earlier and reach one of the two base camps. Machhapuchhare or Annapurna Base Camp. Machhapuchhare would be the first one and on the way to Annapurna, so if we feel good enough, we can continue up to Annapurna Base Camp, otherwise we will stay there and go up the next day without our luggage.

Sadly as I don’t have mobile internet here and only expensive wifi,  I will not be able to publish this post today… 

No cycling

Instead we had a really bumpy bus ride. At 7:30 in the morning Tomaz and ai were ready to start. Some friends from my hotel got a jeep to drive them up to a trek. As they still had 2 places free,  to give us a lift to the local bus station. From there we got a bus to get us up to Ghandruk. First time in a bus during my journey. We were sitting in the back. Sometimes we needed to grab the seat infront of us to not fall off our seat,  it was a little bit funny. Arriving at Nayapur we decided to get out of the bus as the road had no asphalt anymore and it would be getting even more horrible. So we started walking at half past 10.Beautiful valley. I took some pictures, but I left my cable (on purpose) down in the hotel, so I will upload them in some days. 

We did 17 km today and arrived  at Jhinu Danda ▲1720m 😀

Now we eat here and will probably go to sleep. If everything goes good we will be up in 2 days. 

I don’t know if this post will be uploaded today or some other day. I will try it now. 

Again no cycling today.

Today was nearly all about preparing for hiking to the Annapurna Base Camp. But before I left the hotel I tried to get my pictures of the paragliding from the CD to any other device. The women at the reception was so kind to let me use the laptop and upload them to my cloud,  so they are save. Sadly the movie was too large,  so I could not upload it,  but I saved it to the USB-flash I have on me,so more save than a CD,  as it doesn’t break that quick😀 I  uploaded some of them to the post of yesterday.

After the upload was finished,  which took me nearly a whole hour. I went into the city to met Tomaz. Together we went to get our permits to be allowed to enter the area of the Annapurna at the official office. I forgot my passport in the hotel, luckily they only wanted the number,  which I have, as I have copies of all my documents in my cloud. 😀 We needed to pay extra as we don’t have a guide with us, but we are save,  as we are hiking together, the trek is not that hard and many people are in the trek.

By chance, a guide who Tomaz had 2 years ago,  was just coming down from a tour and on the way back to Kathmandu, but he had some time for us,  so he told us even more, how we could do it all😀

For some relaxation we rented a boat and paddled a little bit on the lake. One of us even went into the water…

I still had no suitable backpack,  so we started to negotiate again and I got a used fake one for 10$, it will last the trip😀

Back at the hotel I prepared everything for the trip and placed my bike and panniers into tha luggage place for the duration of the trip.

I wanted to pay for my room and got the invited to have dinner with some guests of the hotel😀 It was nice to see some of them a last time before everybody goes on a different hike tomorrow.

So now that everything is ready for the hiking tomorrow. I don’t know if I will be able to write a blog post every day depending on the internet and electricity.

Distance: 61,29 km Time: 3:49 Total distance:

In the morning Tomaz left even early then usual,  but this time for his hiking. So I slept again. Start as usual around 8 after I did my stretching,  which ai try to do now every morning.

I didn’t want to take the main road to get out of Tansen as I then would have to climb again a part I did already yesterday, so I choose to take another way. As it turned out,  that way turned around and ended up at the same junction as the main road. But it was a lovely road through the village. So be it,  I climbed again. After little less than an hour, I reached the restaurant, I ate yesterday. From that moment on,  it went down for 14 km. I put some cloth on with long arms,  as it got really cold.

While descending, I realised that there were no vehicles on the road. The only vehicles I saw were from the army. I also passed some solders in the villages,  I thought,  that it would be the normal presence.

After a while I met a german cyclist going in the opposite direction as me.  He immediately saw that I have a german bike,  so he asked to talk in german. He then told me,  that today there would be something of general strike,  that why most shops would be closed,  no vehicles on the road and military presence to ensure that no roads would be blocked. This is as far as he was informed. I asked the people in the hotel, but they couldn’t really tell me why. I don’t know and I don’t care,  because I don’t think that anything further more will happen here. After a longer talk and a nepaleas joining us, even though we were talking in german, we separated again. He went to Tensen and I to Waling.

It was really nice to enjoy everything on the road without any engine noise or honking in the background.

When I entered Waling,  a man stopped me to talk to me. He invited me in for a tea,  so I accepted. Again an english teacher,  so he told me, but again, his english was so bad,  that I was unable to understand him all the time. After some really strange questions from him, I decided to leave again.

In the middle of the town I found a hotel where I will stay for tonight,  and collect my last energy to finish the last part to Pokhara, where I will be staying for some days.

After eating lunch in the afternoon,  I went for a walk up the hill and toke some pictures. Upload when wifi is good,  here it is really bad…

Did I’ve already mentioned that I passed 1000 km on the road? 😀 I did

Oh and when you are passing nepalese kids,  they don’t say “hi”, ” hello” or “namaste”, no,  they just say “bye” 😂 There exceptions,  but often it’s like that.

@Steffi: Hügel + leere Straßen

Distance: 66,49km Time: 5:32 Total distance: 942 km

So the day of the big climb. I started at normal time. I still needed to get into the city as the hotel was at the beginning of Butwal. When I got in the center and I turned left on the main road to Pokhara, the wind started to blow into my face. I thought it would be really hard to go up. But soon after I left the city and enered the valley the wind was gone. From there on it started to climb. It was hard,  because my behind was hurting a lot and I always needed to figure out a position which was comfortable. It was so beautiful that I forgot the pain and just kept ridig and taking pictures.

The traffic was also not that much as an australian guy and a swiss girl on a motorbike told me yesterday. Perhaps there is less traffic because it is saturday. I don’t know.

So after some cycling, I didn’t even care how far I already went,  I saw a bench made out of bambus. I decided to take a break. After a while I checked out my GPS: 1007 meters of altitude. This was worth a selfie😀

I continued my climb,  but it did not go up that much anymore. It always rises and falls again and you always get a nice view down into different valleys. 

I was passing the junction of the town Tansen, but I contined on the road as it was only 11:50 and I had a good run. After some more kilometers I found some place to eat. Relay nice women with her daughter. We were talking a little bit about the road,  and that I would check with Tomaz where to stay and I always refered to him as my cycling friend. Tomaz had written me that he would stay in Tansen. The lady from the restaurant also suggested that I should stay there as the next town is far away. So I decided to go back. But before I paid , the women said: “look your frined”  and pointed out to a guy with a trailer on his bike,  but who wasn’t Tomaz. I quickly went out to talk to him. It was Carlos from spain. Tomaz met him some days ago once,  now I met him but only by chance,  because he stopped right infront of the restaurant I was eating in😀 He didn’t even saw my bike. He is also going to Pokhara, but he is faster,  so he continued. I payed and decided to ride backe like 16 km to get into Tansen.

Half way back I was really pissed on my self, because of my decision but I thought I would be again a really bad idea to turn again so I forced myself to go to Tansen… Arrived there, after some pushing my bike up a heavy hill on foot I arrived in the town center, where again by chance met Tomaz while he was going for a walk up to the top of thw mountin. He gave me the key for the room. I quickly droped my luggage and bike,  grabed my camera and went up myself. Half an hour walk and I could see the big mountins with snow. tomaz later on told me the names but I forgot them again,  as usual. I only remembered fishtail,  which is the closest on to Pokhara.

After the walk I took a quick shower and then went for dinner,  we found a nice restaurant at the back of a house. We ate a nepaleas speciality called Mo-Mo. Really great stuff. Afterwards they started singing. I will upload the video😀

Now we are back in the hotel. Tomaz and i will splitt again tomorrow as he wants to stay here for another day. I want to come to Pokhara.

Oh yeah on monday,  you should look at the moon,  as it should be very big as Tomaz told me,  hopefully I will then be in Pokhara and see it from there. Supposing Tomaz is right.

Ohh and this is Tomaz in case you wonder who this crazy man is:

Pictures will follow, as the drunken man in the reception couldn’t give us the password for the wifi…

In summary: great day expect for the part where I was turning around and going back,  but the to the view over the mountains made it worth it.

Distance: 125,75 km Time: 6:19 Total distance: 876

The first few kilometers today after the start at 8:15 in the morning were flat. After that part it went up into some hills. They were really beautiful,  less of traffic, beautiful nature nice curvy road.

After a break from going up,  I met Sanam. He owns a restaurant some way back on the road,  so we should have pasted it yesterday. After some talking,  we separated again. He was even able to meet Tomaz,  who was ahead of me as he started earlier. Oh yeah it was one of the only ways I was riding without a helmet as it was a climb, but the next climb I had I on again.

I was always checking the GPS to see when I would pass the 500 meters altitude, as the website told us yesterday, but I never saw it on my GPS… So I missed the summit of this hill and of todays route, but it was only 500, so nothing compared to what I will do the next days😀 And It was still very beautiful, see the pictures.

After the curvy and nice downhill, the road got straight but still in the forest so okay. But not for long. Then there came villages,  one after each other and only straight. So the last 60 km were kind of boring road,  but necessary to get to Butwal. From there it is only around 160 km to get to Pokahra, but with a climb of 1000 meters,  so I will probably not do it in one day. Tomaz advised to probably to it in 3 to 4 days. I need to see how well I am doing a real mountain.

As always I met Tomaz by chance on the road, I was a little bit wondering,  when I would meet him,  as I was only 13 km away from Butwal. When I just finished writing him a message,  he was passing me. So perfect timing.

We took a hotel a little bit outside the city and then went into the city via TukTuk for dinner. There we found out that it is the festival of night. The only thing we saw were kids running around coming to stores and restaurants, singing and getting money for it. Kind of like “Lichtmesdaag” in Luxembourg but without the lights.

So after a little walk in the city we wanted to take a TukTuk back,  which was really complicated, as all of the drivers were like: “no,  no,  it is to far away”. We then took one to get over the bridge,  where we then got another one,  which brang us to the hotel,  where we are now.

Oh and it is totally normal that there are lizards in a hotel, I don’t know if there is one in our room today,  but this one in the hallway did not run away when I was trying to take a picture of him😀

And now a little bit of beard trimming with a swiss army knife, as it starts to grow over my mouth…